What it's like to be almost ready (For Daisy):

I can't focus on anything - except checking the passes that are still closed because of the snow.  I keep making lists, dreaming up maps of our panniers - where will we keep all of our gear?!  I know I'm supposed to be answering questions about my research, but different questions keep popping into my head:

Will we have enough water?  Enough shade?  Should I get some electrolyte powder?  Do I really know how to tie up a bear bag properly?

At this point, it doesn't really matter.  We'll figure it out as we go, and I am so excited to get on the road.  To give you a little idea of why I'm so excited, check out this link to a Google map.  It has just a few of the stellar locations we'll be riding through marked.  Do you see all those national and state parks and forests?  We're riding through the 'best of the west', and over some really huge passes!  Tioga Pass in Yosemite goes up to 9,945'.  Wow!

Meanwhile, things in State College are winding down.  All my final papers are submitted, the end of the semester meetings have taken place, and the undergrads are going crazy and moving out of the dorms.  We leave in just two days: on Sunday right after the service at the UU.  Then we are meeting up with a few of my (awesome) friends from statistics for a camp-out in Prince Gallitzin State Park on our way to Pittsburgh.

From Pittsburgh we'll catch a train to San Diego.  It leaves on Tuesday at 11:59 pm (ha!), and we'll arrive in Chicago in the morning.  Then we'll have a chance to wander the city and get books for the next leg to San Diego, which will take until Friday afternoon.  We hope to take the metro down to the Mexican border then ride back north to where Jason has friends where we'll be staying for a night before really setting out for the Southern Sierras.

The Co-op Kitchen - another reason to get out of town.
  The paint tubs are our grain storage, everything else is dirty dishes...